Lips Of An Angel
by duchesscarml
Summary: Oneshot Songfic. Song is Lips of Angel by Hinder. SessKag. They've been broken up for 3 months, but neither is happy apart.


10

Disclaimer: I do not own neither Inu Yasha or any characters associated with it, nor do I own the song _Lips Of An Angel_ by Hinder. Song lyrics are in _italics._

**Lips Of An Angel**

She sighed for the twentieth time and turned her head to eye the clock on the nightstand; _3:33 a.m._ She'd also seen _2:47, 2:51, 3:02, 3:11, 3:16, 3:23, _and _3:27._ Obviously she wasn't getting anymore sleep tonight.

Turning her head slightly to eye the male form sprawled on his stomach and wrapped from the waist down in the sheets, she sighed once more in slight envy. Moving the cover out of the way, she sat up and silently swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Finding her slippers, she slid her feet inside the waiting opening then headed for the door.

Kagome Higurashi threw one last look to her boyfriend's form, sleeping peacefully, before leaving her bedroom. She wore her favorite pair of pajamas – pink pants that sat low on her hips with a pink tank that had a weird looking bunny rubbing tears from its eyes. Below the bunny in white and black letters was written _'You suck. And that's sad.' _

Aiming straight for the freezer, she quickly pulled out the pint of _Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey©_ then grabbed a spoon and headed for the couch in the living room. Absently she flipped on the TV as she dug in to the ice cream.

She'd seen him today.

It was probably the reason she couldn't sleep.

Kagome never imagined it would hurt so much to see him happy with someone else. Did he feel the same when he saw her with her boyfriend? _Did_ he see her? Did he even think of her anymore? Or of what they once had? _She did._ Sometimes an entire day would pass and it would be the only thing she thought of.

She'd thought she had moved on – she even had someone new – but, it seemed her heart hadn't moved at all.

He'd looked so… _happy?_ No. He never really _showed_ happiness, but he did look content as he'd held his new girlfriend. Was she that easy to get over, then? She slid a hand up her face and into her hair and pulled sharply on the long tresses. Why couldn't she get him out of her head? If he obviously could do it, why couldn't she?

After three years together, it had taken him less than three _months_ to move on.

Kagome looked down when she felt something moist land on the top of her wrist. She blinked. Two more drops fell before she realized they were coming from her; that she was crying. Wiping at her eyes she gave a watery smile as she looked up at the TV to see _Casablanca_ on the screen.

Apparently, tonight was a night to think of Sesshoumaru.

Suddenly she looked over at the telephone. Slowly she reached over to pick the handset up then gingerly sat back. Staring down at the keys, vision blurry from a fresh set of tears, she contemplated doing something she hadn't done in a long time.

Would he answer? Would he talk to her? Or would he be mad at her for calling him?

Mind a little numb, heart pounding in her chest, she sucked in a breath and slowly began to dial the number she still knew from memory. It never even occurred to her that he could have changed his phone number. She lifted the phone to her ear then held her breath as it began to ring…

_  
Honey why you calling me so late?  
It's kinda hard to talk right now.  
Honey why are you crying? Is everything okay?  
I gotta whisper 'cause I can't be too loud  
_

Sesshoumaru sat at his kitchen table, strawberry ice cream on the table top in front of him. He liked the smooth, creamy and rich feel of the ice cream on his tongue as he pressed it to the palate of his mouth. He preferred the strawberry flavor to any other; it was not too sweet and he did not find it bland like vanilla. Chocolate was a good flavor too; both sweet and bitter, but the flavor was not a good mix with his other given traits. Pity, really.

He could hear the TV blaring in the other room. He'd flipped it on while on his way to the kitchen. Recognizing what was on; he contemplated going to watch the movie he had once always enjoyed regardless of how many times he had seen it before.

Now it was just another reminder of her.

He had seen her today. Kagome Higurashi.

She had been standing close to some guy, his arm slung low over her waist the same way he use to hold her. It had pissed him off to see someone else holding what belonged to him. Then he had become even more pissed at himself for noticing.

She had looked so happy smiling and laughing with him. It had taken every bit of will power he had not to stalk over to them, yank her away from the guy and then threaten the idiot with bodily harm – or death – if he even so much as looked at what belonged to him again.

Then he remembered she no longer belonged to him.

She had walked away from him and everything they had made together. And he had let her.

When she had left he had thought about going after her. He had thought about it often over the first few days, but he had never done it. Sesshoumaru was not really sure why he had not gone to get her… Perhaps it had been pride, perhaps something else. Whatever it had been it had proven stronger then his desires, because he had not gone.

Part of him had kept telling himself that she would come back to him. That it was her duty to be the one to apologize and come back because she loved him. She had told him she did often enough, so it was only logical that _she_ come back to _him_.

He had never said the words to her.

Sesshoumaru did not know why he had never told her. He guessed he had figured she already knew.

She was the only woman he had ever taken home to meet his family, the only woman he had ever gone on a trip with... and the only woman he had ever asked to move in with him.

She had also been the only woman he had ever planned to give his mother's ring to.

Perhaps it had been his pride that kept him from her after all, he realized, as he thought of all the things he had never said to her. His father had told him that pride had no place in a relationship between a youkai and his mate.

'_Pride is a cold bedfellow, my son. Be careful you don't lose what you have to it.'_

His father had been right.

Now he had a new woman warming his bed and he could not really say how it had happened. He sighed as he stood up to go watch the TV in the other room, taking his ice cream with him, when suddenly the phone rung, piercing the quiet. He turned to look at the offending contraption and contemplated not answering it when he spied the clock on the wall above the fridge; _3:49 a.m._

Sesshoumaru wondered who could be calling him at such an ungodly hour as he moved towards the phone. He contemplated the possibility of it being his father or InuYasha as he picked up the receiver on the third ring.

"Masaharu," he said into the phone evenly.

He heard someone suck in their breath and narrowed his eyes. Someone had better not be playing on his phone. "Hello." He would not ask again.

Kagome sighed at the arrogance in the one word question. She'd almost lost her nerve and hung up, than he'd said 'hello' and she had to hold back an involuntary giggle.

"Hello Sesshoumaru," she gave a bittersweet smile, it was good to hear him.

Sesshoumaru froze at the familiar voice. It did not go unnoticed that he had only been thinking about her moments before and now she was on his phone.

"Kagome." He had to tell himself to relax twice. "It is late."

"Yes, I know. I used to call you at strange hours all the time before we mo—" she cut herself off, fighting back the tears. Maybe this was a bad idea… "I guess old habits die hard. It's been a while."

Her voice was soft and sweet, just as he remembered it. He could also hear the tears. "Yes, it has."

He was whispering. Kagome could still hear him clearly, but she could tell he was speaking lower then normal. She wondered if there was someone there with him, someone he didn't want to wake.

"How have you been?" she asked, wanting to know yet not really.

"Hn," he replied. How was he to tell her that he was miserable without her when there was another person sleep in his bed in the next room? "You are crying."

She gave a short laugh threw the pain. "Dog ears… You always were very good at being direct," she smiled as she wiped at her eyes. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine."

He refrained from commenting on the obvious lie.

_  
Well, my girl's in the next room  
Sometimes I wish she was you  
I guess we never really moved on  
It's really good to hear your voice say my name  
It sounds so sweet  
Coming from the lips of an angel  
Hearing those words it makes me weak  
_

"Are you watching it?" she asked as her eyes fell on the screen. "I couldn't change the channel when I saw it was on."

Sesshoumaru did not have to ask what she was talking about; he could still hear it in the other room. He had been on his way in there to watch the rest of it when the phone had wrung.

It was _their_ movie. They had been out together when they had noticed the local theatre was having an old classic movies night. She had saw the movie listed as one about to start, her blue eyes had lit up then she had immediately dragged him to and inside the theatre. Seeing that look in her eyes, he had not been able to refuse her. It had turned out to be their first date; though they both tried very hard to not classify the outing as such.

Denial was a funny thing.

After that day they had always watched the movie whenever it came on the television. He'd even bought her a copy of the classic – in both black & white and color – for her birthday that year.

One copy was still amongst his DVD collection in the sitting room.

"I am in the kitchen."

Kagome smiled slightly at the abstract answer. It wasn't a 'yes' and it wasn't a 'no'. That meant, in Sesshoumaru talk, he could hear it, but not actually see it.

"Stop listening to it and go watch it Sesshoumaru," she sighed and shook her head.

She was still bossy. No one had ever tried to give him orders before her. She still cared. He almost smiled. "Hn."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "I saw you today," she froze, eyes wide. She hadn't meant to admit that. Her heart began to pound in her chest again. It was too late to take it back now. "You were at the theatre. Did you enjoy the show?"

"No." He did not enjoy it because she had been there with someone else. She was supposed to have been there with him.

"Oh." She'd thought he would have enjoyed the show. His sense of pride and his views on betrayal always gave her the impression that he'd find a kindred spirit in Shakespeare's _Othello_. "I thought you would have."

It always amazed him at how well she knew him. He would have liked the play if his mind had not been focused on her sitting four rows behind him with someone else. Idly, he wondered if he'd have reacted the way the main character of the play had if he had believed he'd been betrayed. If it had been Kagura to do so… he doubted he would have cared, but if Kagome had… She would not have.

Sesshoumaru knew that without a doubt.

_  
And I never wanna say goodbye  
But girl you make it hard to be faithful  
With the lips of an angel  
_

Sesshoumaru knew he should get off the phone; the conversation was going nowhere. But he could not hang up. Not yet. She was his angel. He liked hearing her voice… if only for one more night.

He wondered why she was calling him now. Did _he_ know she was on the phone with this Sesshoumaru? Was she coming back to him? He had dreamed of the moment she would come back and how he would finally take her back after allowing her to beg and apologize for awhile. Now all he needed to hear was those three words that she used to give him nearly everyday and he would be out the door and over there in a moment's breath.

Damn Kagura and anyone else.

Kagome wondered why he was being so quiet. Maybe he was tired of talking to her and wanted to sleep. She probably should end the conversation and hang up. She could only imagine how Bankotsu would react if he knew who she was on the phone with at such a late hour. That she'd gotten out of bed with him to call Sesshoumaru – not that they had done anything beside sleep together yet. She wasn't ready for someone to touch her as Sesshoumaru had. He had been her first and only… she wasn't ready for that to change.

She wasn't ready to say goodnight either. She wasn't ready to say goodbye.

"You're quiet," she voiced, picking at the imaginary lent on her pajama bottoms. "Is she there? She knows I'm on the phone."

"She is here," he sighed inwardly. He had wondered if she would ask… he should have known, but he would never lie to her. "She does not know."

It was the first night he had allowed Kagura to stay the night and it had not been his idea. That was why he was still awake; it was strange sleeping next to the wind youkai. It was also why he found it strange – _or ironic_ – that Kagome was calling him tonight.

"He will not like you calling me," he said in his deep quiet tones. It was the longest sentence he had made so far.

"I know," she whispered. "I couldn't help it."_  
_

"Why?" he asked; needing to hear her answer, but afraid she wouldn't say what he needed to hear.

Kagome heard his question and was at a loss on how to answer it. What did she tell him? What could she say that wouldn't cause more pain for both of them? That she loved him and needed to hear his voice one more time? That she missed him? Or perhaps something neutral like she couldn't sleep and decided to do something she use to do when that happened?

She opened her mouth to say the latter, but couldn't get the lie out. "Ingrid Bergmann's beautiful isn't she? It has no bounds… I wanted to be like her."

_You are like that._ He said nothing.

"But I guess I'm more of an Yvonne…" she sighed.

He arched a brow as if she could see him, but remained quiet and waited as he figured she wasn't finished. He tried to imagine her long, thick, ebony hair blonde, like that of the tragic Yvonne in the movie as he stared at said blonde on the screen, but couldn't picture it. It did not fit his Kagome. His Kagome was stronger then that.

Kagome was many things, but _tragic_ was not one of them.

_  
Well my girl's in the next room  
Sometimes I wish she was you  
I guess we never really moved on  
It's really good to hear your voice say my name  
It sounds so sweet  
Coming from the lips of an angel  
Hearing those words it makes me weak_

When more minutes passed and nothing but silence came from the other end of the phone, he decided to ask his question again. The inu-youkai was not sure how he would handle hearing something other then what he wanted, but he needed to hear something. He needed to know if it was truly over between them. If everything they had had, everything they had been; was gone for good.

"Why?"

Kagome didn't even bother trying to fool herself that he wasn't asking about her earlier statement. She'd hoped that he wasn't still waiting on an answer from her, but she hadn't believed it. Sesshoumaru didn't give up that easily.

Except, he did before. Once.

_Why had she left, again?_ The question whispered through her mind and she sighed as she tried to remember.

They'd been having problems. Kagome couldn't stand how he'd tried to dictate every aspect of her life. How he had tried to choose her friends and tell her when and where she could go. She had thought his possessiveness and overbearing attitude sweet at first, a sign of his jealousy. A sign that he cared; even when it annoyed her. But it had quickly grown tiresome, irritating her and making them argue. The fact that he always dismissed her arguments, never listening to her, was another problem. Or maybe it was the way he treated her as a possession, didn't seem to trust her, or that he never told her he loved her when she always made a point to tell him.

Maybe it had been a combination of them all. Looking back, she really wasn't sure. Now, they all seemed like petty issues they should have been able to work out. Whatever it was, she'd finally lost her patience with it. When he'd gone to work one Wednesday morning she'd waited in bed for the sound of his car leaving before getting up, packing what she could and moving back to her mother's.

And he hadn't come after her.

She'd been angry at him at first, when he hadn't followed after her. It had hurt that he was willing to let it all go so easily, but she had gotten over her anger. No matter how much she wished otherwise, she could never stay angry at him for very long.

Three day after her leaving a moving truck had arrived at her mother's carrying the rest of her things. And that had been the end of it.

"Because…" she sighed coming back to herself. She idly rubbed at her chest, over her heart; she remembered the sting of seeing the moving truck; realizing he wasn't going to come.

__

And I never wanna say goodbye  
But girl you make it hard to be faithful  
With the lips of an angel

He wished she was the one in the other room or better yet; right beside him, so he could see her face. So he could look into those huge sapphire eyes as she said the words to him like he use to.

Maybe he would say them back this time.

Kagome rubbed a hand through her hair as she released a heavy breath. Why was it so hard to tell him now what she used to tell him all the time? She'd feared him leaving her back then; they were so different from each other, so she always made sure he knew what he meant to her. Now they were already broken up so she didn't even have said fear she'd once had, so what was the problem? It didn't make sense, but there it was.

"Because I don't want to say goodbye…" she whispered as the tears welled up in her eyes again. "I don't ever want to say goodbye."

_Then do not. _"Why?"

"**Because I don't okay!**" she yelled at him, forgetting about her boyfriend in her room sleeping – not that she had to worry really; Bankotsu slept like the dead. "Why are you pushing this!?"

As quickly as her anger had come, it was gone again. "I just don't."

"Then do not." She would never know how much it took for him to say that, but he knew he had to give her something. He just hoped she still understood as well as she displayed earlier.

Kagome sucked in a breath, eyes wide. The hand that was holding the phone began to tremble slightly. "Sesshoumaru…"

"Tell me." Did not she realize he needed to hear her say it? How else could he tell her?

"Sesshoumaru…"she bit her lip, taking a deep breath, "I… I miss you."

_  
And I never wanna say goodbye  
But girl you make it hard to be faithful  
With the lips of an angel  
_

"No." That was not it.

Sesshoumaru shut his eyes. He missed her too, but that was not what he wanted to hear. It was there though; on the tip of her tongue or lodged in her throat. He would not let up until she said it.

He _needed_ to hear it.

He fought to keep the stiffness from his voice. "Tell me," he hated repeating himself, but some things called for drastic measures.

_  
And I never wanna say goodbye  
But girl you make it hard to be faithful  
With the lips of an angel  
_

Kagome wiped at her face harshly as she heard his two word demand again. He wanted the words; fine. She'd give him the words. They were his anyway… always had been. She'd given them to him a long time ago and she couldn't take them back. She didn't want to.

"Sesshoumaru…I…" He better not make her regret this, "I love you… and I never want to say goodbye."

"Good."

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and savored the moment. He did not think he would miss hearing that as much as he had the pass few months. He will have to make sure to put a stipulation in their marriage certificate that she was to say that to him every day For. The. Rest. Of. Their. Lives.

It was only fair after what she put him through these pass months.

"Sesshoumaru?" she questioned quietly, he was being _too_ quiet.

"Kagome," he said; voice even once more"It is late."

It was Kagome's turn to shut her eyes. _It was truly over… _She fought to hold on to the flood of tears threatening until she could get off the phone. "Goodnight Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru heard the tears in her voice and schooled himself to ignore them. Everything would be better in the morning. – he looked at the clock on the TV; _4:52 a.m._ He corrected himself; everything would be better in a few hours – once he got rid of Kagura.

"Tomorrow," he whispered and heard her suck in a breath. "Be ready," he commanded, then silently disconnected.

They still had things to work out but… his angel was coming home…

_  
Honey why you calling me so late?_

Kagome smiled and buried her face in her hands as the flood gates she'd been holding onto so tightly, finally burst. Slowly she curled up on the couch. She needed to sleep, but didn't want to go back in her room.

It was late… and tomorrow she was going home.

_fin_


End file.
